Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-08-27
John SWiNrON ON STRIKES.
The Famous Friend Of Labor Attempts to
Explain the Recent Repeated Failures.
Nnnr Nnnl I,l. 90 Anihinn hna

4 TIC E9lllCIS TI1cI.l VI AIapOB HtACllipAo ~
Explain the Recent Repeated Failures.
NEW York, July 30.-Nothing has
made such u ripple for many n day in
the labor-world as the astounding de-
feat Of the most powerful trade union
y the United States-the Brotherhood
OF Locomotive engineers--in It's GneX-
pected struggle with the Brooklyn
Elevated road. So conservative is the
policy of this great brotherhood, SO
cautious are its methods, that il is
rarely led into a strike by any dispute,
and when this extreme measure is re.
sorted to, it is after preparations which
are supposed TO give the best promise
of success. The officers Of the broth
erhood prefer arbitration to harsher
methods of action, and they have SO
often succeeded with it that they look
upon it with the best guide Il of all
troubles. But, in the Brooklyn case,
these officers departed from their Gus
tomary policy, gave their approval of
the strike of the engineers, and thus Sc
cured for it the backing Of the
powerful brotherhood, which has
very large resources. II was
intended that the Brooklyn strike
should be a masterpiece, ''short, sharp
and decisive" in which the brother
hood would win a triumph ali .Ae
more shining because of the defeats
recently suffered by other industries.
Fox years past it has rarely Won in Il
strike for the reason that its leaders
have rarely tolerated n strike. and this
also would have made the expected
success all the more noteworthy. On
account of these things, the result in
the Brooklyn case was startling and
stunning. The engineers were defeated
by a single blow from the manager of
the Elevated Railway company. He re-
fused all offers to arbitrate, though they
were made by the strikers, by the chief
officers of the brotherhood and by the
state board of arbitration. Upon call
ing for engineers he found all be need
ed at short notice, and the elevated
travel was but partially interrupted
for only Il couple of days.
The Brooklyn failure came on the heels
Of a long series Of failures In strikes
such as cannot be found in any report
of other wears. A full record has just
been published Of the strikes of the
frs half Of the present year IN the
United States. II Is without parallel
in any other equal period in the whole
history Of modern industry. They are
nearly twice as numerous as the strikes
in the first half of last year. They
number more t0an all the strikes in
the whole of Europe during the past
ten years. They give evidence OF an
unprecedented perturbation IN the IN
dustrial armies OF the United states.
From the beginning Of January last till
the close of June we had no fewer than
525 strikes. Involving close upon 250,-
00O strikers, directly affecting fully
1900, 600 OF our working population.
In the building trades the strikers num-
bered over 90, 600; in the business OF
transportation over $4,000, In inning
Il shoe makilg nearly 10000 each;
and i'm several of the industries from
5000 to 10000. The papers have told
from time to time of the bad luck
that befell most Of them, and the final
summing up shows that fully two-thirds
belong to the category OF failures.
When this is contrasted with the official
statement made last year by Labor
Commissioner Peck, of the state OF
New York--that two-thirds of all the
strikes in this state during the year
were successiul-it will be seen that
there has been an adverse change for
which there must be some profound
cause.
1t IS doubtless partly due to the
rapid growth of combination among
employers in order to resist the de-
mands OF labor and to the wide
spread weakening of many of the or
carnations of wage-workcrs. Regard
inc the latter part we have had some
Amusing developments daring the past
y weeks. 1t was officially reported
m the Knights of Labor convention ut
Fall River a few days ago that the
strength of the Massachusetts, district
had diminished as much as two-thirds,
or, in other words, that the member
ship had fallen from $4,000. which 1t
was last year, TO $4,000, which II IS
t the present time. And while this
has been the case in that state
with the wage-slrners on the one